KPI chief: Oil price upward trend to continue

BRUSSELS, May 3 (KUNA) — Bakheet Al-Rashidi, President and CEO of Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), or Q8, has said that the recent upward trend in oil prices is to continue.“I expect this trend to continue. We expect the price to be between USD 50-60 by end of this year or the first half of the next year. We think this increase in price is following the fundamentals of the market. It is a supply-demand issue. Nobody is forcing the price to go up or down,” he told KUNA.“I think this will continue until we see something like USD 80 a barrel three to four years from now. It will stabilise the market,” noted the KPI chief.Yesterday, Al-Rashidi inaugurated the Q8 Oils new world class blending plant in the Belgian port city of Antwerp after a complete revamp.“This is the most sophisticated plant in Europe with a capacity of 125 million liters per year. This capacity can be expanded. The plant’s capability is now much better and bigger than before,” he said.Al-Rashidi pointed out that the new Antwerp plan can now produce up to 1,000 different types of lubricants, both for auto motor segments for engines and also for industrial segments.“This goes with our strategy as KPI and KPC (Kuwait Petroleum Corporation) to expand our operation in Europe and elsewhere. Q8 Oils used to be only in Europe. It is now all over the world and we are now distributing in the US, Asia, recently also in Africa, Middle East and we are expanding in a very good rate,” he noted. (end) nk.hb